>>Our young people often sing a song that says 'The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.' How true this is. And praise be to God for his complete and never ending love on this til the Lord's day. It is before this God of love that we assemble that we might worship and praise him. And therefore we have joined together that we might make our own offerings to our God and do those things according to his perfect will. It is my hope and prayer this day that we'll each do our very best to show God how much we love him by accomplishing his precious will and doing all those things which are according to his eternal purpose. Furthermore, let me encourage you each to do your own part, as we sing praises to God, as we study from his perfect word, and as we try to accomplish everything that we do in spirit and truth as our God has asked. Another great privilege we have this day is to speak with our God in prayer. Will you bow with me at this time before his throne as we speak to him. Our God and father in heaven we thank you so much for this day, another day of life, understanding that all good things come from you, spiritually and physically. We thank you for life and we thank you for breath. And we know Father that we live every day on this life working toward the great promises of those things and the life to come and therefore help us someday to be found justified through your grace, your love, your mercy, that we might receive that mansion in heaven that has been prepared for each of the faithful. We thank you for this time that we can praise and lift up your wondrous name and in Jesus name, we pray, amen. At this time to begin with our first song in the morning, I encourage you to think about the great privilege that we will have to sing about a song that speaks of the great trust that we can have in God, a God of love. So I want you join in with the congregation at this time as we sing together, 'The steadfast love of the Lord.' ♪ The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases ♪ ♪ His mercies never come to an end ♪ ♪ They are new every morning ♪ ♪ Great is Thy faithfulness O Lord ♪ ♪ The Lord is my portion says my soul ♪ ♪ Therefore I will hope in Him ♪ ♪ the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases ♪ ♪ His mercies never come to an end ♪ ♪ They are new every morning ♪ ♪ Great is Thy faithfulness ♪ ♪ The Lord is my portion says my soul ♪ ♪ Therefore I will hope in Him ♪ ♪ Therefore I will hope in Him ♪ We just sang a song that clarifies the steadfast and never ending love of God. Now I'd like you to consider the verses from which the rest of this song comes from and what it deals with. They are found in Lamentations chapter three, beginning there and verse 21. The Bible says: This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope, therefore the Lord's mercies are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion says my soul. Therefore I will hope in him. Wow, what a powerful scripture and what a powerful song that we are able to sing from the word of God itself and notice further the great encouragements that are found in this beautiful text. Not only do we have hope in God because of his wondrous love but we also learned that he has offered us great mercies and they will never come to an end for the faithful. Why? Because it says they are new every morning. Furthermore, God's faithfulness is great. And finally, we understand that the Lord offers us a portion and certainly does care for our souls. Because of this, we also sing in the song, I will hope in him. Brethren, we do have so much to be thankful for in the fact that we serve a loving and caring God, and truly without him, we would be nothing. Have you forgotten this day just how precious you are in the sight of God and just how mighty God is. And now let me ask you, are you fully serving him and doing all the things that he requires according to his will? Why? Because he is worthy. If not, choose today, to get back on track with your savior and to do everything that you need to do in order to obey God. And even if you need to become a Christian, why not confess the name of Jesus today, repent of your sins and be buried with your Lord and savior in baptism. Do those things that will allow you to be a part of God's family and to enjoy the great blessings of God in this life and the great blessings of God to come in the life that will be forever more. As far as our study of the day, we will be continuing our series, which is entitled, 'God is love'. In our specific, this discussion this morning, we'll deal with the command to love our enemy. So please stay with us this morning. And after our next song together, brother Jerry Sullins will be leading us in the main study of the day. We're again happy to have brother Sullins with us. And as most of you know, he is the Director of the Bible Institute of Missouri here in Springfield Missouri. And we thank him for the time that he has spent to come and to lead us in God's word. And we know that we'll be edified and those things that we learn from the perfect word of God. However, before we begin our lesson of the morning, won't you join me together in the second hymn of the day with the congregation, as we sing together, 'God is love'.

>>Welcome again to the living word broadcast. We're so glad that you're with us this morning to study together the word of God. For the past few weeks we've been studying about the subject of love, the greatest attribute that is known to man and the greatest attribute that we can add to our character. Actually, as we have studied, we first of all considered that God is love. 1 John 4:8, where it definitely says by the apostle John, that God is love. He's a representative of agape love. That is a selfless love that he extended to us by giving his son to die on the cross. In fact, John said, here in his love, not that we love God but that he loved us and gave his son to be the propitiation or satisfaction for our sins. And so Jesus did that on the cross. We considered also that we are to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength as is found in Matthew 22, verse 37. And then last week, I believe it was last week, the subject was given of the second and greatest commandment thou shall love our neighbor as thyself. So we, first of all, love God with all of our hearts, soul mind, and we love our neighbor. But what about our enemies? Today, we're considering the subject of how we should act and react toward our enemies. The Bible is very clear in this. In fact, Jesus himself spoke of this a few times and his greatest sermon which is recorded for us called The sermon on the Mount in Matthews chapter five, six, and seven. So we'll be examining that text today. But first of all, let's consider whom we would consider to be an enemy. That someone who has actively opposed or in many ways is hostile to someone else. It is a person who's not concerned about whether or not they would abuse you or not. So how do we treat those people? What were the instructions that Jesus gave us? In fact, this person seeks to do us harm. That happens a lot in our world today. In fact, just recently, if not even going on now, is the invasion of the Russians toward the Ukrainians. I imagine that the Ukrainians actually think of the Russians as those who are hostile, who are abusing them as they kill innocent children and adult in that country. How sad that is? So how should we treat someone like that? Now I don't know if I can give you the proper answer on that but I do know in everyday activities there are instructions given by Jesus that we would do well to follow as we look upon people who we feel seek to do us harm or who want to abuse us or persecute us. I call your attention to Matthew chapter five. And I want to look at verse nine first in one of the great beatitudes where it says blessed are the peacemaker for, they are the sons of God and they shall be called the sons of God actually is what it says. And then it goes on to say in verse 10, blessed are the peacemakers. Or blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And it doesn't stop there. It says blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely on behalf of me or for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for so persecuted they, the prophets, which were before you. So those are those people today whom we see are reviling us that is to abuse us and to attack us. Actually in the original language it says with evil words how many times recently, my friend, maybe even today that someone has attacked you with evil words. How many times have you been driving along the streets of Springfield and throughout this region of Missouri and people get angry at you and say all types of curse words and make signals are abusive signals toward you. That should not be made from one person to another. We live in that kind of world today. Do we necessarily call those people our enemies? No they are people who are outta control but these are the type of people who can carry it even further and much beyond that, who experience road rage and in some ways, even kill other people because they cannot control themselves. Indeed, they would be people who are enemies of us. They say all matter of evil against us falsely, that is they lie, they cheat, they steal, they bear false witness. All of these things are going on, are being done by people whom we could consider to be our enemies. They persecute us. In fact, this is something that went on in the early church age and even goes on today. There are Christians all over the world who are being executed because they believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. How sad that is. And these Christians are willing even, and sometimes do die because they confess that Jesus Christ is the son of God. This is nothing new. Remember Peter and John, right after the church was established in the book of Acts chapter three and four. Those men were persecuted by their own brethren. They had done a wonderful deed. They had healed a man at the gate called beautiful. A lame man who had been lame for 40 years. Actually, I don't know if it was from his birth but he was unable to walked and he healed them. And because of that the Jewish leaders rose up against them. They beat them, they threw 'em into prison. They wanted to kill them but they did not stop teaching and preaching Jesus Christ. They did not abuse them back or mistreat them in any way. And what about Steven in Acts chapter six and seven that man who actually told the truth about what the Jews had done. They had crucified the Lord and savior on the cross of Calvary. And he said it in words that caused them to get so angry that they gnashed their teeth and then they stoned him. And remember, Steven was that one who reacted in a very positive way. So we see throughout all of the dispensations of mankind that people who love God were also to love their neighbors. Those two greatest commandments came straight out of the law of Moses, as you can read back in the Pentateuch. So we know that that's what God expects of us. We know what Jesus expects of us. He expects us to do this and I'll call you her attention to the same chapter. Matthew chapter five, where it was Jesus, who said you have heard it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. You know, my friend, even the Jews in that day and time were preaching and teaching that you should hate your enemy. This is not what Jesus came to this earth to do, to die for all sinners. Those who even considered him to be, he considered to be his enemies. But what did Jesus say? How are we supposed to react toward those who persecute us? He said in verse 44 of chapter five, of the book of Matthew, 'But I say to you love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.' And then verse 45 'That you may be sons of your father who is in heaven.' What amazes me today is how we teach our children to return evil for evil. You say, what, what are you talking about preacher? I'm saying that when some of our children are abused at school, we tell 'em to go back and abuse someone even worse so that they will leave them alone. Is that what Jesus taught? Certainly not. In fact, Jesus said in verse 39 of chapter five of the book of Matthew 'But I tell you do not resist an evil person but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.' Why? Because we are the light of the world. We must let our light so shine that men may see our good works and our good character and glorify our father who is in heaven. The teaching is true and it is just, and it is right. What did Jesus say when he was upon the cross being crucified by the Romans and the sanction of the Jews was taking place there of that act. He said, father, forgive them for they do not know what they're doing. And also what did Steven say when he was being stoned and almost at the point of death he said to his offender, his enemies, he said, 'Father, lay not this sin to their charge.' What is your reaction in this world today? Why do we do these things? Why do we return good for evil? Because the Bible instructs us to do so. In fact, Paul said to the Roman brethren, to the church at Rome in Romans chapter 12, verse 17 'Repay no evil for evil, have regard for good things in the site of men. Then he went on to say, taking from Proverbs 25 if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink for in so doing, you will heap coals of fire on his head.' That means you'll cause him to be ashamed of himself. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. That's what we need to be teaching our children. That's what we need to be telling ourselves when someone abuses us with their tongue or maybe by an evil act or by doing something that we know is going to cause us a lot of pain, we need to return good for evil. We need to do the best that we can to show these people that we are sons of God. We are peacemakers. And this same Paul said in this same book, Romans 12 'As much as is in you possible live in peace with all men.' And that means all men and women. I want to challenge you today to return good for evil. That's what Jesus expects of us. How can we be shining lights to this world if we return evil for evil. Listen, those enemies have souls. Those people who seek to abuse us and misuse us, however, the, they might do it have souls that need to be saved. How can they be saved if they see those who are Christians those who claim to be of Christ misusing and abusing them in return for their evil acts. So therefore do not be overcome with evil but overcome evil with good. Yes, they must feel our love. So therefore we must love the Lord, our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and as Mark said with our strength. We must love our neighbor as ourself, that is all people, and we must do what, we must even love our enemies. That's what God did when he gave his only begotten son on the cross that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now I challenge you today to do what Jesus wants you to do. He wants you if you claim to be a Christian, to be a peacemaker to return good for evil, to do what Jesus would do. And that's what he would do. To do what all the righteous people all over this world would seek to do who claim to know Christ and who desire to do his will in their lives. The decision is yours. And by the way, God will judge you according to how you do his will in the way you treat your enemies.

>>Let me thank you again for choosing to be with us this day, as we've given this time to God I hope our time together has been an encouragement and a blessing to us all. And we invite you back every Lord's day Morning at 7:30 as we commit ourselves to is time of worship before the very throne of God. But for now, if you have any questions please feel free to write us or to address us in the areas or ways that we provide in just a moment. You might also like a free transcript or free CD or DVD of the program or we might also offer you free Bible materials or free Bible correspondence courses. No matter what your need is, please feel free to contact us in one of these ways. Our address the Living Word program 2540 North Kansas Expressway, Springfield Missouri 65803. Many of these items are also available on our website that address, thelivingwordprogram.com. Or if you prefer, you may call us at 869-2284. As we consider the magnificent love of God, may we truly learn to love as he loves. Furthermore, may we ever love our enemies that they might even know and have the opportunity to find their way to God and ultimately have salvation as well. The question for us today, do we love our enemies as God commands